Fatal Neglect

Drawing on startling new evidence, including medical records and a postmortem report, this biography provides several answers to the mysterious and unsolved death of the revered poet Dylan Thomas. Since his death in 1953, arguments that he died from alcohol abuse, diabetes, a heart attack, or even medical incompetence have endured, and this account carefully researches each theory and investigates the roles of people close to Thomas, including his lover, Liz Reitell; her doctor Milton Feltenstein; hospital doctors McVeigh and Gilbertson; and the literary impresario John Malcolm Brinnin. Countering those who have wondered if Thomas himself was mostly to blame for his demise, this account weaves together a chilling picture of demanding friends and colleagues who did not take the poet's illness seriously.